Social Norms
Social norms action with informed and engaged societies
Social Norms
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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RTK - Haiti Field

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Haiti has the highest prevalence rates of HIV in the Western Hemisphere. Today young people are motivated more than ever by the Right to Know Initiative to strengthen their programming so as to ensure that all young people have access to relevant information to make healthy decisions in a world racked by HIV/AIDS.

The lack of knowledge about HIV and AIDS among children and young people is disturbing. Sixty-three percent of young people aged between 9 and 18 years old interviewed in the context of UNICEF's Voices of Children survey knew either nothing about HIV/AIDS (36%) or had only a little knowledge (27%). Two percent of children in the survey believed that keeping a “long way” away from an infected person was a means of prevention.

Several youth NGOs have already taken up the cause of ensuring that their peers and “hard-to-reach” youth are getting the information they need in an effective way. VDH [Volontariat pour le Développement d'Haïti], FOSREF [Fondation pour la Santé de la Reproduction et l'Education Familiale], Centre GHESKIO [Groupe Haïtien d' Etude du Sarcome de Kaposi et des Infections Opportunistes] PSI (Programme Santé Information) and various youth associations in schools are central to ensuring that RTK is able to reflect the needs of young people. Just this week, over 39 young people gathered in Port-au-Prince to define exactly how they want to progress with RTK and to conduct participatory action research [PAR] that will serve as the basis of their youth communication strategy.

“Right to Know is about my knowledge and my peers'; it is about our successes and our failures, not an adult's: something very important to me,” said Anick Supplice of FOSREF. This quote is representative of how young Haitians are taking the lead of RTK, defining their own goals and activities.

RTK will contribute to the national effort of reducing HIV infection rates among 15-24 year olds by 25% by 2006. The initiative will also help fulfill the rights of young people to access information and to achieve their potential. RTK aims to build the capacity of at least three main Haitian Youth Organizations in communication strategy development, implementation and evaluation.

Source:
UNICEF Right to Know Initiative, November 2002.
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